Русский
Government fiscal income revenues from Russian imports will have declined in the West and increased in the East by tens of billions of dollars
Russia’s exports actually increased by US$31 billion after the West imposed trade sanctions, according to open-source intelligence calculated by Sputnik, itself based on data from Russia’s Federal Customs Service.
While Russia’s change to replace goods imported from the West was uneven, Western trade restrictions forced Russian companies to focus on markets in the Global South – with these new markets, such as China, and India among others having enormous purchasing powers.
Russia’s Exports
According to FCS trade statistics, Russian exports to unfriendly countries were uneven – while some items grew, others shrank. But overall, Russia saw an increase in exports compared to the pre-sanctions period, with companies earning an additional US$31 billion from trade with friendly countries, data from the Federal Customs Service show.
Western importers of Russian goods experienced an immediate downturn in direct Russian purchases valued at US$256.5 billion. Typically, these Russian manufactured goods would have also been marked up for resale to the retail sector in the EU and United States, denying their economies profit margins on that US265.5 billion. Typical profit margins vary from industry to industry, and can be as high as 100% for example on consumables. These Western governments would also have lost out on the non-collection of import duties, and VAT.
Fiscal Income Derived From Russian Imports
This data means that most fiscal income that Western unfriendly countries received as a direct result of previous Russian trade in goods has largely disappeared, with some estimates assuming this has dropped by 90%. Fiscal income as stated above is charged by importing countries from imposing import duties, which can vary considerably depending on the product, VAT (which is typically 12-20%) and profits taxes (typically 25-40%). These revenues have in essence been transferred away from Western exchequers to mainly Asian ones, with others in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. This situation has not been commented on in the West, however the loss of this income to their economies also represents a significant income steam loss from the denial of Russian trade with that now falling into government exchequers from friendlier nations. Although difficult to quantify, these taxable revenues are also worth tens of billions of dollars and quite possibly into the hundred billion dollar range in terms of annual fiscal income value.
